12 haunted places in Lincoln

Neihardt Raymond Hall

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Honors Program and its students are moving to a new home in the fall of 2019. After being housed in the Neihardt building for much of its existence, the Honors Program will transition to the Knoll residence hall — a bigger, newer facility.

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Temple Theatre

This 1908 postcard view of the then-nearly new Temple Building on the southeast corner of 12th and R streets shows the building much as it looks today.

Paranormal guru Dale Bacon, in a 2001 talk at the Nebraska History Museum, told a story of a construction worker's accident and that he is thought by many to be haunting the theater. But Bacon's theory was that the energy of the stage performers may be causing the haunting.

A drama major very active in the theater in 1987, Bacon said, was rehearsing a tap dance routine when in the balcony area he heard someone applauding his performance. He couldn't find the person in the balcony, then began to hear the sound of his tap dance routine on the stage. However, there was no one around. A voice asked him to try one more time, and the drama major performed it perfectly. At the end, he again heard someone clapping.

Some say Dallas Williams, theater department head at UNL until 1971, was the ghost, because his favorite spot was to the right of the sound booth in the balcony. Other people in the building in the 1930s and 1940s reported dancing lights and flames.

Julie Hagemeier, theater department general manager, said in a 2000 Daily Nebraskan article that a girl haunts the prop attic. When a show crew took apart various dolls in the prop shop to make the type of prop they needed, they left the attic messy. "When the crew returned to the locked attic … someone had aligned the dolls' parts and placed the matching heads with the bodies."

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Ferguson House

According to a DN article on Ferguson House, it is thought to be haunted by its original owner Myrtle Ferguson.

"Tenants have claimed witnessing unexplainable appearances and lights turning off for years since then (her death). It is reported that people see a female figure who is believed to be Ferguson, roaming the halls of the house," the article says.

Robber's Cave

Robber's Cave, known as a hideout for outlaws but also a sacred place for the Pawnee, has had witnesses report hearing Native American-style chanting along with the sound of their drums. Others say that they have heard the sound of disembodied screams, crying, laughter and voices, according to hauntedrooms.com.

Mysteriousheartland.com had this to say of Robber's Cave: "In one room, a passage appears to have been bricked over, and many said they could hear the ghosts of Robber’s Cave moaning from wherever lay beyond it."

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Nebraska Capitol

Dale Bacon told of the sound of a man's weeping heard in the southeast corner of the Capitol. He thought the haunting could be the result of "some pretty spirited Senate debate" pumping energy into the building. Security guards say they have heard strange things echoing into the hall.

From Hauntedhouses.com: "Halfway up the steps up to the 12th floor, people have suddenly seen a misty form free-falling down to the first floor, but disappears before landing. Witnesses have seen a black mist on various stairways throughout the building."

"There are also frequent reports of unexplained sounds including screams, crying, footsteps and disembodied voices speaking. A handful of visitors have noted seeing the spirit of a Native American man in the basement," hauntedrooms.com said.

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Old Captain's Studio

The building at 48th and St. Paul now occupied by a law firm was once the home of a retired sea captain. The captain's ghost is now haunting the rented studio that was his last home on Earth, according to the book "Haunted Places: The National Directory."

"Tenants in the building have reported seeing his form on several occasions since his death," the book says.

Lancaster County Assessor's Office

Wesleyan

Nebraska Wesleyan relates the tale: "The legend of the ghost of Clara Mills started in 1963 on a chilly autumn October morning. … Coleen Buterbaugh, a secretary to Dr. Sam Dahl, was searching for a guest lecturer on the building’s first floor. … As she entered the office suite at the north end of the C.C. White Building, she found that all the windows were open and that the room was empty. After taking about four steps into the room, however, Buterbaugh had a strange feeling that she was not alone. She smelled a strong odor of musty, stale air, and noticed that it had grown strangely silent in the hall outside.

"Then she saw it.

“'I looked up and just for what must have been a few seconds, I saw the figure of a woman standing with her back to me at a cabinet in an inner office. She was reaching up into one of the drawers. I felt the presence of a man sitting at the desk to my left, but as I turned around, there was no one there.'

"Gazing out one of the large windows behind the desk, Buterbaugh noted that the scenery seemed to be that of many years ago. There were no streets, Willard Sorority that stands just across the campus was not there. Nothing outside was modern. Buterbaugh was frightened and left the room."

Clara Mills taught music at Nebraska Wesleyan for 28 years, until she was found dead in her office on April 12, 1940. Mills is buried in Wyuka Cemetary.

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Starship 9 site

Debris from the demolition of the Starship 9 theater lines Q Street in January 2007. Before the theater closed and was torn down, an employee told paranormal guy Dale Bacon that when workers are closing up, sometimes you can hear horses in the hallways and metal-on-metal pounding. Bacon researched and found that a stables and a blacksmith's shop were in the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The site now is home to the Larson Building.

GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star file photo

State Penitentiary

Ghosts of Lincoln bus tour host Scott Colborn describes apparitions of prisoners trying to escape and a long-ago torn-down guard post that still tends to appear at times, according to a 2014 NewsNetNebraska article.

Antelope Park

According to hauntedrooms.com, "the field that sits behind the caretaker’s house (at Antelope Park) is a particular hotspot for paranormal activity. Visitors have reported seeing apparitions that walk all the way across the field before disappearing into the woods on the other side."

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Memorial Stadium

“If you were a ghost, where would you like to spend your time?” Ghosts of Lincoln bus tour operator Scott Colburn said in a DN article. He used this logic to identify Memorial Stadium as the most likely place to have paranormal energy in Lincoln.